Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, Quintet
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"Record of the Year" Award, Stereo Review
Ovation:
"Recording of Distinction. Superb recording of two great works... Like hearing them for the first time... A gem. Not to be missed."This is the one that made David Shifrin famous and became a perennial best-seller for Delos.
These two masterpieces for clarinet have entered contemporary life through films in recent years: A melody from the Concerto soared through "Out of Africa," while the Quintet compelled Salieri to acknowledge Mozart's genius in "Amadeus."
Shifrin, now Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, is one of the world's great clarinetists. "If there is a bel canto school of clarinet playing, Shifrin is surely its finest exponent," wrote the Los Angeles Times.
This recording offers something more than its lyrical performances and superb recorded sound. You'll notice that the cover shows Shifrin with two clarinets. One of them is a specially elongated instrument which allows him to perform both works with their original melodic contours.
Because the clarinet has been shortened and simplified during the nearly two centuries since Mozart's death, modern instruments are not capable of reaching the low notes in the original works. When musicians play the Concerto and Quintet on the modern clarinet today, parts of whole phrases are transposed an octave higher. Much of the clarinet voice in the Concerto, for example, suffers from breaks in mid-phrase.
So Shifrin set out to remedy this problem by designing an instrument that would accomodate the lower register of the Concerto. The result: an extended-range clarinet built for him by the distinguished wind-instrument maker, Leonard Gullotta. Shifrin attaches a unique lower joint, incorporating a system of alternating keys for the little fingers, to the top half of his regular clarinet. Though this adds about eight inches and five pounds to the instrument, and in the soloist's words, "looks like an awful lot of hardware," the music "takes on a more bittersweet quality, deeper and fuller."
Press Commentary
San Francisco Chronicle:
"These performances come as close to being ideal as any in my experience. Shifrin hits almost unbelievable peaks of beauty again and agian. His taste are impeccable at every moment, and the sound he produces is a revelaton in just how beautifully the clarinet can be played. He does for his instrument what Flagstad did for our concept of Wagnerian sopranos. Shifrin also seems to have inspired his colleagues, for both accompaniments are outstanding in every respect, and the recording superb. Highest possible recommendation."
Stereo Review:
"Record of the Year. How musicologists have arrived at these reconstructions of the original versions of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto makes for fascinating reading in the notes to this CD, but what truly distinguishes the disc is the glowing performances it contains. Clarinetist David Shifrin approaches both works in the highest bel canto style, with a seamless, long-line legato enhanced by a velvety tone. Both the Chamber Music Northwest (in the quintet) and the Mostly Mozart Orchestra (in the concerto) follow his lead and imbue the performances with a mellowness that does not obscure the melancholy lying below the surface of these late mature works."
Los Angeles Times:
"If there is a bel canto school of clarinet playing, Shifrin is surely its finest exponent. In the Mozart, he etched a legato line of impeccably fluid grace and subtle inflection... Shifrin traversed the gamut of his instrument with uncanny equanimity. Striking leaps, from the lowest bass notes to pitches in his flutelike upper range maintained their silver timbre and purity.
"Shifrin was aided in this concerto by a specially designed instrument, one whose length and range was extended below that of the standard B-flat clarinet. With several additional baritone notes at his command, Shifrin was able to execute the piece more closely to the way Mozart originally composed it. The whole concerto took on a new depth, and the expanded range for the solo instrument placed Mozart's ideas in even bolder relief."
Die Welt (Berlin) (translation):
"There is a new name to remember - David Shifrin from New York who, despite his youth, has already reached the very top. At the age of 23, he was first clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra. Since then he has been guest soloist with many other major American and European orchestras and has made a number of recordings. His playing of the A-Major Mozart Clarinet concerto - an ethereal piece - can be matched by no one else. His dream-like, soft precision of tone, his ringing warmth and his musical and instrumental ripeness of intonation, made his acrobatic feat seam facile. No difficulties stood in David Shifrin's way. What a delight to listen to him!"
Complete Contents
Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622
David Shifrin, clarinet
Gerard Schwarz, conductor
Mostly Mozart Orchestra
Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581
David Shifrin, clarinet
Chamber Music Northwest:
Ida Kavafian, Theodore Arm, violins
Toby Appel, viola
Fred Sherry, cello
Total Playing Time: 62:09